For some wannabe petite folks taking weight loss jabs — trying to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner might feel like a jab to the gut.
Most foodies are looking forward to indulging in smothered turkey, honey-baked ham, gooey macaroni and cheese, creamy casseroles and decadent desserts on Thursday.
But waistline watchers shooting up Semaglutide meds like Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy — type-2 diabetes prescriptions used to lower blood sugar — are bracing themselves for not-so-satisfying celebrations due to their drastically diminished appetites brought on by the ever-buzzy injectables.
“I’m a recovering fat girl,” gripped North Carolina mom Julie Stoll-Kelly, a forty-something taking Semaglutide pricks to purge excess poundage, in a trending TikTok tirade. She’s decided to skip her once-weekly injection ahead of the festivities, hoping the missed dosage will allow her to freely feast.
“Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday,” the brunette bellyached. “I want to have some Turkey and mashed potatoes and some cranberry sauce and green bean casserole and sweet potato pie — and I want more than just a little, small piece.”
Her groans for the goodies notwithstanding, puny portions of the holiday favorites are likely all that’s on the menu for anti-obesity jabbers like Stoll-Kelly as the drugs cause otherwise big eaters to feel full faster.
The semaglutide in Ozempic works by mimicking a naturally occurring hormone, GLP-1. It slows down the passage of food through the stomach and intestines, sparking the sensation of satisfaction for longer stretches of time.
The powerful effects of the shots have even contributed to the drop in snack sales at Walmart. In October, the retail behemoth acknowledged a “slight pullback” in demand for the high-fat, -sugar and -calorie bites that once flew off of its shelves prior to the Ozempic gold rush.
But merrymakers with designs on chowing down this week aren’t too excited about being stunted their limited abilities.
“Thanks to Ozempic I will be eating like this on Thanksgiving,” lamented TikTok user @LilPooPooh in the closed-caption of a post featuring a small dinner plate outfitted with tiny helpings of potatoes, mac and cheese, Brussel sprouts and turkey. She punctuated her frustrations with a series of frowning emojis atop audio of an “I’m so hungry,” chant.
Semaglutide shooter Karli Sine penned: “When you’re finally in a good place about your weight loss and then Thanksgiving happens,” in an equally distressing post. The mom of four and military wife expressed her fears about restricted eating on the holiday with popular footage of actor Pedro Pascal biting into a limp sandwich while sitting in front of a mouthwatering Turkey Day spread.
Julissa Alcantar, a real estate agent from Houston, too, fussed about her disappointing indifference towards tasty treats on Thanksgiving 2022, saying: “I cooked things I thought I would really like, and I ended up eating maybe two spoonsful of it.”
“I enjoyed the company more than anything,” added Alcantar.
But some on the shot are thankful that food won’t be their sole focus this Thanksgiving.
Wegovy user Claudia Stearns, 65, from Somerville, Mass., told the Associated Press, “Last year, it felt so lovely to just be able to enjoy my meal, to focus on being with friends and family, to focus on the joy of the day…That was a whole new experience.”
Joe Sapone, a 64-year-old retiree from New Jersey who’s lost 100 pounds on Mounjaro, is also happily forging the “food orgy” he’d normally have on the holiday. But he worries how a disinterest in binging might effect his overall experience.
“Part of succeeding at this is disconnecting a good time with what you eat,” said Sapone. “[But] am I still going to have fun if I don’t eat that much?”
Jens Juul Holst, a top GLP-1 researcher, questioned whether ex-gluttons are capable of maintaining a nonchalant attitude toward indulging, indefinitely.
“Why is it that you’ve lost weight?” asked Holst. “That’s because you’ve lost your appetite. That’s because you’ve lost the pleasure of eating and the reward of having a beautiful meal,”
“And how long can you stand that?” he posed. “That is the real, real question.”
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